Tag: TUF 1

(And just like that, a robot-voiced MMA fighter from the future star was born.)

Without coming off too anti-UFC (LOL!), I think we can all agree that the promotion’s Hall of Fame is about as meaningless as their rankings system, right? Aside from picking and choosing its inductees based around whoever Dana White isn’t fueding with at the moment, it’s page on UFC.com hasn’t been updated in years, so much so that recent additions Tito Ortiz, Stephan Bonnar, and Forrest Griffin are not even featured on it. Although to be fair, Ortiz probably never will.

Regardless, Dana White has been teasing his media cronies that the UFC Fan Expo at this year’s Fourth of July International Fight Week — you know, the one featuring musical guests Papa Roach, POD, and Lit (double LOL!) — will serve as the induction ceremony for the UFC Hall of Fame’s next member, as it has in years past. The big difference being that this year could serve as the induction for not just one man, but the entire cast of The Ultimate Fighter season 1 (via Fox Sports):

I think that’s a must. I think that entire season should be inducted. Without a doubt that group of people are all game changers. I’ve thought about the whole cast should be (in the hall of fame). Even the Canadian Jason Thacker — without the group of people that we had and the way the synergy worked and the way things went down, that season really launched everything.

Man, Frank Shamrock must have snapped an entire box of pencils in half when he heard this news.

Josh Koscheck posted a series of cryptic message on his Twitter page today explaining that he asked the UFC to let him have just one fight at middleweight at UFC 138 in November before he returns to compete at 170, however he didn’t name who the opponent is that he asked for.

In an interview I did with Kos a couple months ago for the latest issue of Fighters Only Magazine prior to him gaining clearance from his doctors to resume training following a serious eye injury he sustained in his last bout against UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre in December, the outspoken 33-year-old expressed his desire to become a moneyweight fighter. He named two potential opponents he’s like to face if he moved up in weight, and one of them happened to be a 185′er.

“I think I still have all the tools to compete at the highest level and I believe I have the toughness necessary to be successful and to become champion one day. I want the toughest fights. I’ll fight anybody, any time, any place,” he asserted. “Anybody who wants to fight me I’ll take on. Whether it’s Bisping at 185, Tito Ortiz at 205 — bring it on. I’m a money fighter. Show me the money and I’ll fight.”

Why it matters:
For those who didn’t know who Anderson Silva was prior to his UFC debut against Chris Leben at Ultimate Fight Night 5 back on June 28, 2006, they knew who he was after the fight. Silva was the slight favorite to win the bout (at – 170 to Leben’s +200), but if oddsmakers knew then what we know now, they would be kicking themselves for giving Leben a shot in hell at beating “The Spider.” It took Silva just 49 seconds to dismantle the previously thought un-KO’able TUF 1 veteran whose head was (and is) often described in the same vein as a fire hydrant. Those in the know from witnessing Silva leave a pile of PRIDE and Cage Rage opponents in his wake were not surprised that he beat “The Crippler,” but rather how quickly he did it and the devastating fashion he did it in.

Leben still wakes some nights in a cold sweat, screaming, from the recurring nightmare of Silva turning him into a human bobble-head with his pinpoint jabs.